Innovation Audit

Investigate and improve innovation capabilities

CBI conducts business innovation audits in order to investigate and improve innovation capabilities of firms. By so doing CBI helps improving the processes, practices and structures of commer-cializing new and valuable ideas. CBI looks to work constructively with the management of its audited companies, aiming to increase the company’s long term competitiveness and create value for all shareholders. The reason why innovation audits can be helpful is that many companies invest heavily in innovation to drive profitable growth. A prerequisite for ensuring a consistent flow of innovative solutions is that the appropriate processes and capabilities are in place, and there is some understanding about how they can be improved.

Beyond the traditional idea

CBI’s audit goes beyond the traditional idea of only measuring innovation capabilities in an engineering-wise way. CBI’s audit uses quantitative data as a means for triggering discussions and reflections in the firm and uses qualitative data – as a second step in the audit – in order to be able to improve company’s innovation capabilities.

Mini audit

In order to develop the audit, CBI has worked systematically between 2006 and 2010 to find a rigorous way to “review” firms’ innovation processes and activities. We have also developed the ‘mini audit’ i.e., a less time consuming auditing process that simply sets the scene for further actions using quantitative data.